Mabilog’s clemency a ‘reward for attacking’ Duterte 鈥� Panelo
WARM WELCOME Former Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog drops by the Iloilo City Hall in September 2024 to visit Mayor Jerry Treñas after returning home for the first time in seven years. — IAN PAUL CORDERO
MANILA, Philippines — The executive clemency granted to former Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog was a “reward” for “attacking and besmirching” former president Rodrigo Duterte, according to former chief presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo.
Panelo released the statement on Monday, a few hours after Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin confirmed Mabilog’s presidential pardon for his administrative case.
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“The pardon granted Mabilog on his administrative [case], obviously, is a reward for attacking and besmirching the integrity and reputation of former Rodrigo Roa Duterte, who is a critic of the administration,” Panelo said.
Mabilog’s executive clemency was in connection to his case in 2017, where the Office of the Ombudsman dismissed him for failing to explain his questionable wealth worth P8.9 million from 2012 to 2013.
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Duterte had also accused Mabilog of being involved in the illegal drug trade.
Fearing for his life, Mabilog left the country in August 2017 to attend a conference in Japan.
Mabilog only returned to the Philippines on September 10, 2024 to clear his name, as he was included in the Duterte administration’s drug watchlist, although no charges related to illegal drugs were ever filed against him.
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In a House quad committee hearing in September 2024, Mabilog claimed he received a call from a police colonel in 2017 warning him that “your life is in grave danger.”
He interpreted this as he would be killed soon, just like what happened to former Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa and Ozamiz Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog, who were shot dead in police operations after being publicly shamed for being on Duterte’s “narcolist.”
Duterte threatened Mabilog on national television, saying, “You would be next.”
Mabilog suspected that he was listed on the “narcolist” after not supporting Duterte in the 2016 presidential race.
